Bill could target chemicals used in furniture

WASHINGTON — An aide to Senator Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., said Tuesday that a bill that would likely affect some chemicals used in furniture could be introduced as early as next month.

Lautenberg has submitted similar bills twice since 2005 to reduce the exposure of workers, children and other consumers to toxic chemical substances, but both proposals died in committee.

According to an ABC News report earlier this week, the new bill could overhaul the Environmental Protection Agency's ability to regulate chemicals.

The story said some harmful chemicals with links to cancer, neurological disorders and reproductive defects lack tight regulation and could be banned.

It also noted that such a bill would propose a broader set of regulations than some recent fixes dealing with high concentrations of lead and formaldehyde in certain Chinese-made products, which were limited in scope and dealt with specific crises.

On Feb.4, speaking to the Environment and Public Works subcommittee he chairs, Lautenberg said the Toxic Substances Control Act, or TSCA, fails to give EPA the tools it needs to protect against unsafe chemicals.

He added that in more than three decades of existence, the TSCA has allowed EPA to test only 200 of the more than 80,000 chemicals in household products, and allowed the EPA to ban only five substances on the agency's inventory of chemicals on the market.

"With EPA unable to require adequate testing, our children have become test subjects," Lautenberg said in the statement. "Our children should not be used as guinea pigs. So it's time to update the law and protect them."

Lautenberg said his safer chemicals bill would force chemical makers to prove that their products are safe before they end up in stores.

"We already regulate pesticides and pharmaceuticals this way - it's just common sense that we do the same for chemicals that are used in everyday consumer products," he said.